Aria of the Soul
by LemonSmoothie
Summary: Post KHII. Revolves around Hayner, Pence, and Olette as strange things begin to happen around Twilight Town.


"Aria of the Soul"

An original Kingdom Hearts story by Mona

Disclaimer: All Persona characters © Atlus. All Kingdom Hearts/Final Fantasy characters © Square. If anyone asks, Philemon is © Jung. Original characters are mine.

Author's Notes: This story is a quasi-crossover with the Persona series, though familiarity with the series is not necessary to understand the story.

Timeline: After Kingdom Hearts II.

"OK, class," Mr. Gaunt said. "I know the bell is about to ring and you're excited about the weekend, but first we're going to play a quick little game. It's called 'Answer this correctly, or stay here forever.' I want to hand back your essays. First off, Mr. Almassy?"

"Yo?" Seifer perked up.

"Your essay on Woodrow Wilson is word for word what's on Wikipedia. I expect you to do original work."

"How do you know I didn't write the Wikipedia article myself?" Seifer asked.

"Wrong," Mr. Gaunt said. "The correct response was 'Please, Mr. Gaunt, don't report me to the principal for plagiarism.' You're staying here forever."

Pence raised his hand. "Could you please define 'forever'?"

"Well, you'll find out. Cause you're staying here forever. Miss Brown?"

"Yes?" Olette responded.

"Was that cruel? Answer correctly, or stay here forever."

"No..." Olette said.

"Bzzt! Wrong. It damn sure was cruel. You're staying here forever. Now, Mr. Ramone. Your essay is titled 'The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand as the Catalyst For World War I.' What does 'catalyst' mean?"

Raijin began to sweat. "Um...it's one of those words where you know what it means, but you can't express what it means...ya know?"

"OK, here is a passage from your essay. 'Europe was in the throes of a bitter arms race.' What does 'throes' mean?"

"Um..."

Mr. Gaunt smirked. "Thought so. You're staying here forever, as is Fujin Farant. I ran both your essays through a special machine that detects similarities in the writing. There is a point zero one percent chance that Miss Farant did not write both of them."

Hayner snickered.

"Mr. Herschel. What is this school's policy on cheating?"

"Three weeks detention." Hayner replied.

"That's correct...if it's your first offense. This is Raijin's seventeenth offense. You're staying here forever."

"WHAT?!" Hayner whined. "I'm reporting you to the principal. I think this qualifies as cruel and unusual punishment."

Vivi giggled.

"Mr. Ornitier? Is it even possible to give a right answer in this game?"

Vivi shook his head.

"Correct. But...you're staying here forever. My classroom, my rules."

XXX

"This sucks," Hayner said.

Olette looked up from her book. "Just take the time to do your homework."

Seifer rifled through his wallet and pulled out his lunch card. He slid it through the crack in the door. The door opened. "If you chickenwusses want to stay here forever, go ahead."

"You'll get caught," Hayner said.

"He never comes back," Seifer countered. "And Rai's dad is a bartender at the bar down the street. And that bar happens to have a 4:00-6:00 happy hour. By 6:00, Mr. Gaunt is too plastered to even think about us delinquent kids..."

"How do we know you're not lying to get us in trouble?" Pence asked.

Seifer shrugged. "I'm not spending my Friday night at school. Come, gang." He left, with Raijin, Fujin, and Vivi close behind.

"He's not coming back, is he?" Pence asked.

Hayner leaned back in his seat. "So much the better."

"Maybe we should go," Olette said. "It's kind of creepy being alone."

"You're such a girl," Hayner replied.

"I AM a girl, in case you haven't noticed," Olette retorted. "I'm just saying."

The fire alarm rang.

"Well, isn't this serendipity?" Hayner asked. "Seifer unlocked the door, and Mr. Gaunt can't expect us to stay here...right? Let's bail."

Pence sniffed the air. "Do you smell smoke?"

Hayner, Pence, and Olette ran out of the classroom and down the hall. The fire alarm continued to ring.

Olette pushed at the double doors at the end of the hallway. "They're locked."

"Those doors are not supposed to be locked," Pence said. "It's a fire law."

"Let's try another route."

"I don't think we should go that way," Pence said, pointing toward the opposite end of the hall.

The hall was filled with smoke.

Hayner slumped to the ground. "I don't feel so good..."

"Good idea," Pence ducked to the ground. Olette followed suit.

"No..." Hayner clutched his side. "I feel like something's tearing me apart." He began to glow blue.

A strange, humanoid shape arose from Hayner's body. It looked as if it was riding a winged horse, and was also nearly transparent. "I am thou...and thou art I. From the sea of thy heart, I have come. I am Bellerophon, the champion of Greece!" Bellerophon raised a sword and brought it down on the double doors. They broke open.

"I hope we don't get blamed for this," Pence said.

"Who cares?" Olette said. "We need to get out of here."

Hayner, Pence, and Olette ran out of the school. They turned to look back. Half the school was on fire.

"Axel?" Olette suggested. "Remember? Terra set him on fire, and he caught it like it was nothing? Maybe he came back?"

"Why would he come back?" Hayner asked.

"I don't think it was Axel..." Pence pointed to dark, bug-like creatures.

"What are they?" Olette asked. She collapsed. "Oh!" A creature, humanoid but clearly female, rose from Olette's body, which was giving off the same blue light.

"I am you, and you are me. I am Telesphora, the compassionate demigoddess. My life force is yours..." Several large rocks pelted the creatures, making them disappear with loud cries.

"I see we have a few witch-kids," came a voice. A tall man, wielding a rust-stained sword, stood before them. He couldn't have been older than forty, though his face was covered in wrinkles. Half of it was burned and covered in black scar tissue. One eye was scarred deeply, almost certainly blind. He clutched a tattered book titled _In Rakech_ against a worn overcoat. "I hate little brats..."

"Why'd you set our school on fire?" Olette asked.

The man cackled. "The voices. Voices, voices, voices! They compel me to burn, kill, destroy! The voices are my existence!"

Pence began to emit the same blue light. "Ahh!"

"We are one and the same," Another figure, this one wielding a caduceus staff, appeared above Pence's head. "I am Asclepius, the son of Apollo. I shall salve your wounds." Asclepius splashed the man with a spray of water.

"You stupid kid!" The man snarled. "I won't kill you now. I'll just have the Heartless do it for me. And if your precious personas somehow protect you from them, I know just where to find you." The man vanished in a black portal.

"We must be creep magnets," Hayner said. "First Axel, now this doofus?"

"Maybe we should call the police?" Olette suggested.

"And tell them what?" Pence asked. "And what exactly is a 'persona'?"

"Maybe we should ask Terra," Hayner suggested. "She knows a lot about magic."

"She's sick. That's why she wasn't in school today," Olette commented. "Should we really bother her?"

"Who cares? She's not contagious...unless she gave us these leet magic powers," Hayner reasoned. "I feel so strong. I'll cream Seifer for sure in the next Struggle tournament!"

The three kids began the walk to Terra's house.

"I feel kind of dizzy," Olette said.

"Me too," Pence agreed. "Maybe we inhaled too much smoke back at the school. Let's go see Olette's dad after this."

"My dad's a biomedical engineer, not a medical doctor," Olette said. "We should go to the hospital."

"What if Seifer's dead?" Hayner asked. "What if that creepy guy killed them?"

"That's...a morbid thought," Pence commented. "Vivi wasn't that bad."

"It'd be so cool if Seifer were dead." Hayner said. He stopped and collapsed.

"Hayner?" Olette asked. She staggered and passed out. Pence fainted too.

XXX

The kids woke up in a circular chamber. The floor was black and white checkered tile, with an emblem of a gold butterfly.

"Are we dead?" Hayner asked. "We're too young to be dead!"

"What was my life about?" Pence asked.

"You're not dead," came a genteel voice. A tall, thin man stood before them. His face was covered with a butterfly-shaped mask. He wore a black dress shirt and pants. He also had a pair of shining white wings. "Welcome to the Collective Unconscious. My name is Philemon, the one who exists between consciousness and death. I am the one who granted the Personas to you."

"What is a persona?" Hayner asked. "Besides totally awesome?"

"Your powers lie deep in your soul," Philemon explained. "By channeling your spirit energy, your persona is externalized and takes the form of a mythological character. Humans go through life with many faces...and so is your persona, one of many."

"This is remarkably Jungian," Olette observed.

"Who was the guy we saw? The crazy guy?" Pence asked.

"His name is Tatsuya Sudou. A paranoid schizophrenic from another world," Philemon explained. "He was killed by another group of Persona-users years ago. He's been revived through the ritual of Kotodama. I'd suggest you stay clear of him."

"OK," Hayner said. "What about that guy in the black cloak? Axel."

"You needn't worry about Axel," Philemon responded.

"How can you tell?" Olette asked.

"He's already dead."

"But Tatsuya Sudou came back!" insisted Pence. "What's to say Axel won't come back?"

"Axel is gone, for all eternity. It would take hours to explain why. Hours you and I don't have..." Philemon trailed off.

"Is something wrong?" Pence asked.

"Twilight Town is in danger. The fabric of reality itself is eroding. Use your personas to protect yourself in others..." Philemon became fuzzy. His voice also was getting fainter with each word. "Take refuge in each other...embrace your light. Light...in the hearts of people..."

"I can barely hear you," Pence said.

"I think this is a dream," Olette said. "We must be waking up..."

To Be Continued


End file.
